Old Baoshan in the rain

We visited the Old Baoshan (老宝山) in the north of Pudong, after a tip of Historic Pudong.

Baoshan is also a district on the other side of the river. It has the same Chinese characters, but there’s no proof that the names are related to each other. (It’s not too weird for an area to have two ‘Precious Mountains’, right?)

The area was closed but the gates weren’t locked. When I entered, I saw two guys who probably live here in their underwear (~36°C outside), but then it started to pour and I didn’t see them again. Here used to stand a full city wall encircling a town, but right now only two pieces of the wall remain and a tunnel in between, and a ridge of grass to mark the rest of the old wall.

The plaque is hard to read in the rain, Historic Pudong found a better one.

It’s already protected by heritage law, and probably they’ll turn this into a proper touristic location later.

For now, it’s an odd little trace left from a city built centuries ago, in between trucks & cargo containers.